On My Bookshelf: Around My Neck

You know I love books and sometimes I don't just read them but wear them around my neck. I thought I'd take you on a tour through the library of some of my favorite tiny wearable books...

We'll start in "the stacks" by JanDaJewelry

Then meander over to the Leather Journals so we can have the journal handy whenever we want.

Or maybe you want a book that's more personal?  How about a sterling silver brag book from Bragaboutit?

I love this handmade copper etched book by Hangingbyathread1

So if you don't have time to read a book, wear one around your neck!

Feeling Bookish....

I'm a book worm. In all the family pictures of picnics or days at the beach or a lazy Sunday afternoon, there I am with my nose in a book.

The first piece of furniture I owned as a young adult was a bookshelf.

Beadlovers, don't hate me but I'll even part with my beads before I'll part with my books.

So this necklace by Margaux Kent of The Black Spot Books had my name written all over it when I saw it on Etsy last Saturday.

Made from an old leather postcard (I didn't even know they made leather postcards!) it's tiny. Just perfect to wear around my neck and show the world just what kind of person I am.

A booklover.

What about you? Do you love books?

The ABS Carnival Blog Hop: Statement Necklace

Check out my other Carnival Blogger buddies to see the statement they're making!

Cindy Gimbrone
Cindy Dolezal Designs
Island Girl Insites
Janel Dudley
Jeannie's Blog
Jen Valesquez
Kate Clawson
Marcie Abney
Mary Harding
Nicki's Reef
Sharon's Jewelry Garden

More IS More

I've been checking out necklaces lately at Kohl's, Etsy and Anthropologie. I'm smitten with the necklaces full of large and small pearls. I kept thinking why not make one with the orphan lampwork beads I have? Each time I go to the torch to make glass beads, I make single colored beads to go with whatever multi colored beads I end up making. Well, I have a whole slew of single colored beads and they are just right to combine with the shell pearls I picked up in New York City last Thanksgiving.

I just love this look - it reminds me of the saying, More is Less but here More is More. This more is simply beautiful and is up at my Art Fire Shop.

Favorite Things: Designers

One of my favorite things is when designers send me pictures of the pieces they've made with my beads. It's a thrill to see someone else's creativity sparked by something I've created. When I form the glass, I usually have ideas about how to use them but I'm constantly amazed at the variety of ways they are used by jewelrymakers - ways I've never even thought of.

Mary Jane Dodd created a beautiful necklace called "winterberries" using the Ivory Links and Silver Ivory Double Dips.




The unique use of fiber is a hallmark of Mary Jane's work. The fiber introduces another level of texture to winterberries, reminding me that it's fibers that keep us warm in the winter.

Thank you for sending the picture Mary Jane and thank you for designing such a beautiful piece!

When a designer sends a picture to me, I upload it to a special flickr account where others can see these amazing designs. If you're ever wondering what can be done with any of my beads, you can see it on flickr. Maybe it'll spark your creativity - it does mine!

If you've designed with my handmade glass beads, please send me a picture! It's one of my favorite things!

Favorite Things - borrowing from scrapbookers

Every so often, I wander the scrapbook aisles at my local craft store. Being so pre-occupied lately, I found myself needing to get out of the house and wander on Sunday. I have a small but growing collection of stamps that I use to create my wrapping and shipping materials. So I gravitate toward the stamp section and on Sunday I fell in love with the Inkado clear stamps like these sweet winter birds



But I had to have the Tim Holtz Word Keys. I have a collection of vintage skeleton keys but I'm not quite able to alter them. The Word Keys are just the thing - I can alter them all I want and they have such meaningful words on them.
,


Do you have a favorite thing for your jewelry that you've borrowed from another craft?

Grounded

Mediation and slowing down in general is good for all of us. Inspired to live a slower life, I'm creating a line of reminder jewelry that has style yet serves as a reminder to live life slowly. Each piece will be named after a slow life goal like this one - to stay grounded.


I put this up on my Flickr a couple weeks ago but decided to re-work it slightly and take another picture of it. It's available in my studio at ArtFire.

Nevermore

Now that I have Twilight on the brain, I've created another necklace along the theme of dark romance, this one is in part inspired by The Raven's famous words on lost love.





The 1.5 inch square fused glass pendant is hand stamped with enamels and then a black glass heart is fused over it. I routered the edge so I could wire wrap the bail. It's suspended from a gunmetal chain I bought at the Rings n Things Bead Tour.

Nevermore is in my Art Fire shop.

Moving Day....

Today is moving day! I'm moving all of my finished jewelry from my website over to ArtFire.com. So you'll notice the new storefront on the side of the blog.

Visit CindyGimbrone's ArtFire Shop

Why ArtFire and not the popular Etsy? I was on Etsy for awhile and they've gone the way of ebay - more fees, more self promotion to the detriment of the sellers and less about what they were in the first place, handmade.

So, give Art Fire a look-see. It's a great place to be!

Icons of Jewelry: Frida Kahlo

After the walk around the Albright-Knox, I went inside to find an exhibit on Frida Kahlo. It was a photography exhibit with vivid color pictures. As I looked at each of the portraits taken of Frida Kahlo, I was mesmerized by her jewelry. I wanted to take pictures but knew I wasn't allowed. But my spirits were lifted when I found a copy of I Will Never Forget You in the gift shop.

Frida Kahlo dress in Tehuana traditional dress. The colorful dresses are a blog post on their own! Lovely, vibrant and part of the tradtion


(Above picture courtesy of tehuanas.com.)

The saturated colors of the photography seem to highlight the jewelry. Since I've made numerous glass hands and have an entire collection of hands (what can you expect? I'm a sign language interpreter!) I was particularly drawn to Frida's earrings in the photo below.

(Frida Kahlo Photo Credit)
I'm sure more than one person found wearing hands as earrings a bit shocking. I think they're awesome! Or check out the big chunky necklace she has on in the picture below.

(Frida Kahlo Photo Credit)
Frida Kahlo was a icon of jewelry - big, loud, shocking jewelry. Just like her art.
What do you think?

Sitting on my workbench....

Last fall, I was on JustBeads.com and saw these Navaho Red Square Beads made by artist Mary Harding. I fell in love with them and bought them the minute I saw them. I knew the "red" matched the "coral" colored glass I have stashed away. Coral isn't an easy color to match it Mary's beads were perfect.

So I made the coral colored glass bling links especially for Mary's beads. They look great together don't they?



I'm working on a design and they're laid out on my workbench. How to connect them - wire? chain? I'm not sure yet.

Any ideas?

Seen it on TV? Interpret it! Rachel's Necklace

Last week, I was watching an episode of Rachel Ray's Talk Show and noticed her necklace. It looked like one of my Bling Links so I couldn't resist whipping up this interpretation of Rachel's Necklace using one of my Bling Links and rollo chain.



I used one of the Bling Links embedded with two crystals - just for extra sparkle. In honor RR, I'm calling it Rachel's Necklace.


What's great about this necklace (other than the fabulous handmade glass by me!) is the finding the Bling Link is suspended from - it opens! You know for me, who likes to have interchangeable - it's fabulous, I can change this out for another Bling Link in Blue.

Whip up one for yourself, the Bling Links are still on sale so you can grab one of these beauties for yourself. It's classic and stylish and goes with anything.

Sweet!

Loving the Edge

I like edgey fashion and my Heartz n Skullz series reflect my love of all things edgey. But as a mom and living a middle class life, the stereotype says I'm not supposed to like it. But here's where I have everything in common with the edgey crowd - I don't like being stereotyped, I don't fit it. That's probably why some of The Teen's friends think I'm cool. If you look closely at me, you'll find a bit of edgey jewelry among the middle class mom, or you'll see me watching NCIS soley because of the bright, funny, Goth character, Abby. It's the most recent guilty pleasure for The Teen and I.

I'm always fascinated with her jewelry. Above, chains fastened with a lock or below, Goth with a soft side - delicate silver rings joined by a silver bead.

(Above photos from Pauley Perrette Fan Facebook)

Another source of the Goth - Millenium Punk style with the red, white and black color palette are the White Stripes in this photo from the MTV website


All of this percolates in my brain and inspires new pieces like the finished Gothic Lace.....


I'm attracted to alot of different styles and it's reflected in my work - maybe that's why I don't seem to have a "voice" but I've always been that way. I do tend to gravitate to the edgey. Do you love edgey jewelry?

Working on....

...."Gothic Lace" valentine pendant for Valentine's Day.

Resolved: Experiment more with your Glass!

Happy New Year! This new year, why not make a resolution to experiment more with your art? I started early with the frit experiments I started in December.


I have a go to frit - it's Val Cox's Silverlake. No matter what I do, I can make this frit look good. If I'm getting frustrated with my other experiments, I roll some Silverlake with Czech Glass's Capri Blue and it just looks pretty!



Ocean Currents and Butterflies is my favorite Silverlake/Capri Blue creation. This is in a private collection - mine! :-)


Experiments can lead to new work - what are experimenting with in your art?

If you don't flux, router!

Yesterday I had fluxing success but if you're struggling with soldering, or you just don't want to create that look, you can try routering your glass cabachons. I like to use this technique when I want a "floating" look - where the frame that holds the glass cab is hidden.

The equipment you'll need is a glass grinder and a special jewelry bit. Yep, that's what it's called, a jewelry bit. I buy the Aanraku Twofers



There's a better picture on the Delphi Glass website if you're like me and want to see a close up picture - in fact, here it is from the site:


Once you have the bit, it's really easy to just run the edge of your fused cab around to create a groove in the glass like the one on my painted cab:


Delphi Glass has a quick step by step for adding a wire frame to create a pendant out of the routered glass cab.

Try it! If you don't solder, router!

It's Fluxing Success!

YAY! I finally successfully soldered a few of my cabs and added a little bit of wire "filigree." I made the cabs - one is a painted bead that had rough beadholes so I slumped it into a cab. The other cab is a made of glass "shorts" that was fused and ground into a square shape.

I must admit that adding the filigree was the hardest part - I think I need an extra hand to do it again! LOL! I used a bench clamp to hold the piece while I added the filigree.

If you solder jewelry, how do you hold the piece so you can solder on a jump ring or other decoration?

Looking for Unusual Design?

There are those of us who design with the glass beads we make so we're always on the look out for new design books as a resource. Stephanie Sersich is a glass beadmaker and jewelry designer so how could she write a book I wouldn't want?

Stephanie has a signature style full of color and fun. She describes her inspiration on her website:

"My own combination of experiences helps to shape my work. My experience of color is from handling textiles, studying art history and from spending time in my mother's garden. My excitement about texture comes from admiring the lush world on the bottom of the ocean, combining clothes and materials and again, exploring the wonders of flowers and the entire plant kingdom."


I've had the pleasure of taking the Spiny Knotted Bracelet class with Stephanie at Beadfest a few years ago. She's very "hands on" and is able to coach students through even the most difficult instructions. Once you learn the technique, each bracelet or necklace using the technique is unique, that's the beauty of the technique.

There are a number of other techniques in the book and profiles of various beadmakers. In the present economy, money can be tight so everyone wants to spend their money wisely. Investing in Designing Jewelry with Glass Beads will be money well spend.

Shocking Bookstore Discovery! Time to Switch it up!

I've been on creative burst since January - Heartz n Skullz, Modern Glass Links, Rainbow Spiral, Bling Links, Chained Links, Modern Folk Bird and now what?





I've crashed.

When I crash, one of the things I do is go to the bookstore and check out the new craft books. I love books and have a large selection of bead literature - it inspires me. I drove the extra distance to go to the extra large bookstore because they carry a large selection of jewelry and beading books along with my yarn addiction, crochet and needle felting.

As I approached the crafts section - excited to go through the 4-5 shelves of jewelry/beading books - I was shocked to discover only 2 shelves of jewelry/beading books. Three shelves had been added to the - gasp - knitting section!

It's official, folks - jewelry and beading as the popular, "in" craft is over.

It's not dead, it's just not the popular up and coming craft now.

The good news is jewelry and beading will be more innovative and personal from now on. My default inspiration to the beading/jewelry section will have to change - that's a good thing - time to switch it up! Look for inspiration in art and photography - no problem, that section is just a shelf over in the bookstore!

Cindy Gimbrone Beads in Jewelry!

I survived the teen party - it was fun actually. I've made a few pieces of jewelry - necklaces with the Heartz n Skullz and put them in the Etsy shop.